In addition to marquee performers such as Sara Bareilles, Better Than Ezra, Jesse McCartney and Lee Ann Womack, the third installment of Jefferson Parish's Family Gras will include an art market and a second stage focusing on Louisiana musicians, organizers said.

The art market with more than 60 vendors will fill North Hullen Street at Veterans Memorial Boulevard, with booths spreading into the Whole Foods Market parking lot. While the main stage will stand in the Veterans neutral ground near Severn Avenue between Whole Foods and Lakeside Shopping Center, the new Louisiana stage will be in a lot across North Hullen from the grocery store and behind Chevy's restaurant.

"This year, you're going to look at it and say it looks dramatically different from years past because of what we're adding, " said Greg Buisson, spokesman for the festival, during a news conference Thursday.

The festival coincides with the penultimate weekend of this year's Carnival, Feb. 13-15, and is designed to lure out-of-towners as well as local residents to the Metairie parade route.

The strategy for coaxing attendees to wear costumes, in classic Carnival fashion, remains the same. In a bid to simplify the costuming regimen, Parish President Aaron Broussard called for revelers to recycle their Halloween costumes on the first day of the festival, wear sports attire such as team jerseys on the second day and don the purple, green and gold of Carnival on the last day.

Performances will stop when parades pass. Other performers include Sheena Easton, Davy Jones of The Monkees, Cowboy Mouth, Gavin DeGraw and the Zac Brown Band.

Violet Peters, president of the Jefferson Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the event costs $600,000 to produce, mostly using private donations.

Organizers said they promote Family Gras along the Gulf Coast in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and in Houston and north Louisiana, hoping to draw people within driving distance to fill Jefferson Parish hotels. Admission is free.

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Mark Waller can be reached at mwaller@timespicayune.com or 504.883.7056.